On Thursday, 13 April, the Calcite Factory was festively opened in Amsterdam. The factory dries, grinds, sieves and hygienises the sand-free calcite pellets from the softening reactors of the drinking water production sites Weesperkarspel and Leiduin. Its end-product is a seeding material that the water companies can reuse in their softening operation: a big step towards a circular production process!
Besides the seeding material, the Calcite Factory will also make other fractions to be used in the glass, paper, plastics or carpet industries, for example. This means that not only are we making the drinking water production process more circular, but that we are also capable of producing high(er)-value raw materials to the client’s specifications.
The installation was built by Advanced Minerals, a subsidiary of the British water supply company, SES Water. The preparation and ultimate construction took place in close collaboration and consultation with Waternet. AquaMinerals looks after the delivery of the sand-free calcite pellets and the sale of the factory’s products.